The astronauts lived and worked aboard the International Space Station for over five months. There, they did a number of scientific experiments, including one meant to assess how microgravity affects bone marrow and another looking at plant growth in space.

This was the first mission for two of the astronauts — Japan's Norishige Kanai and the U.S.' Scott Tingle. A Russian cosmonaut was also on board. Anton Shkaplerov has spent 552 days total in space.

Shkaplerov set a Russian record in February when he and another Russian cosmonaut performed a spacewalk that lasted 8 hours and 13 minutes.